Petshop of Horrors ~Special Edition~ DVD

Somewhere in the heart of Los Angeles' Chinatown, past the lanterns and the noise, there is a pet shop. The proprietor is Count D — ageless, androgynous, impeccably dressed, and possessed of an unsettling ability to know exactly what each customer truly wants. His inventory is extraordinary: animals of ancient legend, creatures that appear to be something else entirely to the human eye, each one offered with a contract containing exactly three rules. The rules are always specific. The consequences of breaking them are always severe. Count D accepts no responsibility for what happens afterward. Detective Leon Orcot has been linking the strange deaths in Chinatown to the pet shop — a grieving couple whose rabbit looks exactly like their dead daughter, a washed-up actor undone by vanity, an idol singer's murderous manager, a corrupt politician seeking power through impossible means. Leon is certain Count D is behind all of it. What he can't quite figure out is whether the Count is a criminal, a supernatural force of moral reckoning, or something else entirely. The answer, like the Count himself, is not easy to classify.

Pet Shop of Horrors is a four-episode horror anthology OVA produced by Madhouse and directed by Toshio Hirata, adapting selected chapters from Matsuri Akino's acclaimed manga. Each episode functions as a standalone morality tale in the tradition of Tales from the Crypt or The Twilight Zone — drawing victims whose own desires, obsessions, and failures become the instruments of their destruction — while the cat-and-mouse dynamic between Count D and Detective Orcot provides a dark, wry throughline. 

Originally released in North America by Urban Vision on VHS in 2000, the Special Edition DVD released in February 2001 collects all four episodes on a single disc with both English and Japanese audio. 

Notable Staff & Voice Talent

Director: Toshio Hirata
Original Manga: Matsuri Akino (serialized in Apple Mystery / Horror M, Ohzora Publishing)
Studio: Madhouse
Music: Mitsuru Miyamoto

Episode Titles:
- Episode 1: Daughter
- Episode 2: Delicious
- Episode 3: Despair
- Episode 4: Dual

Cast:
- Toshihiko Seki as Count D (Escaflowne, Angel Sanctuary, Nazca)
- Masaya Onosaka as Detective Leon Orcot (Trigun, SoulTaker)
- Miho Yamada as Chris Orcot
- Itsuki Yukino as Q-chan

DVD Features

- All Four Episodes on a Single Disc
- Urban Vision Previews

Spoken Languages: English & Japanese Audio, English Subtitles

Edition Details

Japanese Title: ペットショップ オブ ホラーズ (Pettoshoppu obu Horāzu)
Runtime: ~100 Minutes (Complete Series, 4 Episodes)
Director: Toshio Hirata
DVD Release Year: 2001 (U.S. Special Edition Release)
Original Release Date (Japan): March 1999
Publisher: Urban Vision
Rating: Unrated
Region: Region 1 (U.S. / Canada)
Genre: Horror, Dark Fantasy, Anthology
Themes: Moral Reckoning, Forbidden Desires, Chinatown Mystery, Ancient Creatures, Contract Horror

Media assumed VG+ unless otherwise noted.